Product Listing

The Mother of Boards: Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 Preview

By Vijay Anand - 16 May 2008

Diagnostic LEDs, Security

Other Notable Traits of the New DQ6

Diagnostic LEDs pinpointing the exact areas of trouble. is an interesting new touch, but if the board is installed within the casing, it can get a tad more difficult to figure out which LED is lighted up. While this is better than nothing, a standard debug LED placed in a prominent location could be just as helpful - if you've got your manual handy. In that respect, the diagnostic LED idea is more visible and direct to pinpoint the problem, but neither can it capture and relate all issues like a debug LED's various codes. So there's a tradeoff here.

Diagnostic LEDs pinpointing the exact areas of trouble - if any.

Gigabyte's flagship P45 board also has security in mind and is equipped with a TPM chip from Infineon using a 2048-bit encryption key. Once set up, it stores your encryption key on a thumbdrive and you can't use your system without it; meaning no intruders or unauthorized users can have access to your PC as long as the key isn't plugged in. Additionally, Gigabyte's implementation also stores the encryption key in the BIOS (which is encased in yet another layer of password-based encryption prior to one accessing it), just in case you've lost your thumbdrive that has the access key. Nice.

At the moment, Gigabyte's busy perfecting their boards and BIOS before getting them ready for retail as well as for the media to review their final versions. So watch out for the full review in a few weeks at www.hardwarezone.com.

If this is your cup of tea, just stay tuned as these boards should be making their way in a couple of weeks.

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